In the Long Run
by scoobygirl101
Summary: For some people love comes easy. For other people its a lot harder to come by. Set in High School. F/D and in later chapters there will be S/V.
1. Don't let me be misunderstood

**A/N: Hello there! I've never wrote a story like this before. Kind of my take on a typical high school drama story...only with more twists and turns along the way. First chapter is a little slow and short. But things will pick up soon.. Oh and Shaggy gets quite a surprise…Ooohh…Please Read and Review. ^.^**

The sun was slowly sinking in the sky, turning it a beautiful mixture of pink and orange. Footprints covered the wet sand from the earlier activities that had taken place, and now everyone was getting ready to go home. It was the last day of summer before school started; the four friends, and canine, had decided that there would be no better way to spend it than at the beach.

Shaggy's eyes swept over the beach taking in the view. Tomorrow school would start and his carefree days would be gone, for the most part. It was their senior year after all and he really needed to make sure he didn't slack off.

It wasn't that his grades were terrible or he was barely passing. No. But Shaggy often got distracted in school and it was pretty easy for him to get behind on his work. And usually the main source of that distraction was one subject: girls. He never had a real girlfriend before; (he didn't count the so-called relationships that only lased a few weeks.) And when you get to see your friends and fellow classmates caught up in the bliss of love, you can't help but want to experience it for yourself.

_Maybe this year will be different. _He silently hoped to himself.

He picked up his green duffle bag and looked for his friends. Velma was sitting at a picnic table reading a book; Scooby was chasing the seagulls that were flocking around him; and Fred and Daphne…were no where to be seen.

_Probably making out behind the Mystery Machine… _Shaggy thought with a shake of his head as he headed over to the unisex changing room. He pulled open the curtain to one of the stalls without a second though, figuring it would be empty.

Only problem was…it wasn't.

His eyes widened and mouth dropped as he met tan skin, long legs, and a long flowing red hair falling over bare shoulders.

"Oh my god Daphne, I'm so sorr-"

He was cut off by her high pitched squeal and he was sure the horrified look on her face matched his own.

"Shaggy! Get out! GET OUT OF HERE!" She screamed, and quickly grabbed a towel to cover up her naked body.

He turned away, before tripping over his own feet. Getting back up he scrambled away, by time he got to the picnic table he was out of breath. Velma peered at him through her glasses, "What's going on? Whenever you come running from somewhere there is usually some 'monster', or 'ghost' after you."

"Like, No! It wasn't a ghost" He felt a surge of guilt creep over him when he felt that his swim trucks had gotten a bit tighter too.

"Then what happened?"

"Ummm….I just realized that Scooby ate the rest of my sandwich that was in the cooler."

There was no way Shaggy could tell Velma the truth, she might think he was some sort of pervert, which was far from the truth. She gave him a puzzled look for a moment before returning to her book; he was almost positive that she saw through his lie.

A lump formed in his throat when he thought of what Daphne might say when she came back- even worse, what would Fred say when he found out? He sometimes got a little jealous when other guys would check his girlfriend out; Shaggy could only imagine what his reaction would be to something like _this, _accident or not.

He quickly lowered his eyes to the ground when he saw his redhead friend walking over to them.

"Come on, lets get going." She said hastily, not even taking the time to stop walking. Shaggy looked up as her back was turned to him, watching her go up to Fred as they embraced in a kiss. A twinge of jealously sparked in the pit of his stomach. He wasn't jealous because Fred was with Daphne- no, he was jealous of the happiness and the love they clearly had for each other. He wished someone could feel that way about him.

_Oh well… _He shook the thoughts from his mind.

"Like, come on Scoob, its time to get going," The beatnik yelled to the Dane who was still splashing in the shallow water.

"R'awww. ran't we ray a r'little ronger?"

"No, I'm sorry buddy. We have school tomorrow."

Scooby frowned and crossed his paws, not moving an inch.

"Hmmm... What if I make you a 'Super Special Shaggy Sandwich' when we get home?"

The Great Danes eyes lit up, and he bounded around Shaggy's feet.

"R'Okay!"

He looked over to the van and suddenly noticed Freddie giving him a dirty look.

"Uh oh…" He gulped.

_I guess she didn't wait on telling him…_

Scooby picked up his ears and gave Shaggy a questioning look, but he didn't pay attention.

"Looks like its going to be an interesting ride home…" He muttered to himself.

_To Be Continued…. _


	2. Can't you hear me knockin'

**A/N: Just want to say thank you to everyone who left a review! :D I really appreciate it. I also wanted to say that sometimes it might take me a little while to update, I'm working and sometimes it gets in the way. Lol. But I will try to update regularly. But anyway, this is chapter 2! Enjoy!**

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The ride home was filled with a long awkward silence. Shaggy shifted uncomfortably in his seat, they were at Daphne's house right now- which meant he was the last one to get dropped off. He watched as the couple kissed goodbye and then Daphne shut the van door and headed inside her house.

The van started moving and a few minutes passed before Fred began to speak, "You know, Daphne told me what happened today…"

Shaggy gulped, "Yeah? It ,like, was just an accident."

Fred gave him a sidelong glance with an unreadable expression, "Really now? It's okay if you think she's hot, Shaggy. Hell, I KNOW she's hot. But going to the length of walking in on her…well, that's way too far. She's _my_ girlfriend"

"But..."

"No, listen. I've been in your boat before. Being single sucks! It can make you go to crazy lengths." He paused for a moment, "So that's why I'm going to help you get a girlfriend!""Umm…Thanks?"

That wasn't the reaction he had expected to get at all.

"Yeah. No problem. Oh and one more thing….If you ever do that again you're dead meat."

He gulped. _Duly noted._

* * *

Shaggy rolled over in bed after shutting off the alarm that had just woke him. The soft pitter-patter sound from the rain hitting the window made him sigh.

_There is just something about rain that makes a day suck more…_

He slowly dragged himself out of bed and got dressed, trying not to wake Scooby, who was still sprawled out on his bed. If the Great Dane knew he was leaving he would only beg to come with and animals weren't allowed in school.

_You'd think he would be used to it after all these years…but I guess not. _

He softly petted his brown fur for a moment, before whispering, "Poor dog. I'll see you when I get home buddy." And then quietly made his way down stairs to get some breakfast before Fred showed up to pick him up. He stuffed the rest of his bacon-egg-poptart sandwich in his mouth when he heard the familiar honk come from outside, grabbing his coat and backpack he raced outside.

When everyone was in the van the most important question would be asked like it was at the beginning of every school year: Do we have any classes together?

A wave of papers flooded the van as everyone took out their class schedules and exchanged it with each other. Daphne was the first to speak, "Oh Freddie, we have almost every class together….well, expect for lunch. Did you have something to do with this?" She raised and eyebrow at him.

"Why what ever do you mean?" he tried to play innocent.

But in reality everyone in the van knew the truth. In their small town school 'star football players' got treated higher above the rest. They got first dibs on classes, and sometimes with some smooth talking, they also got to pick another person they wanted in their classes with them.

"Hey Shaggy, you and I have Trigonometry and World History class together. Oh and lunch too." Velma spoke up, ignoring the conversation between Fred and Daphne in the front seat.

"Like, that's great, Velms! Maybe you can help me when I get stuck on some homework?"

"I'd love to help," She shyly smiled at him.

He couldn't decide if it was just his imagination or reality, but it seemed like she was looking at him in a different way then she ever did before. He couldn't help but wonder what it meant.

The rest of the ride had been filled with mindless chatter about what they expected this school year to be like.

At school nothing had changed. Shaggy still had the same locker he had for the past three years, and worse than that, it was right by a bunch of the football players. Well not all of the football players treated him poorly of course- he was friends with Fred after all. But a lot of them would shove him around and kick his books. Maybe they did it because he was smaller than them and they knew he wouldn't fight back or because they thought it makes them look tough- either way, he wanted to stay out of their paths as much as possible.

He let out a sigh of relief when he made it to his locker and to his first class unscathed.

_Hopefully the rest of today is like this…_

He made it to class before the bell rang and found a seat, already knowing that none of his friends had this class. The beatnik watched as his fellow classmates pored in the room trying to make it before they were tardy. He noticed that one girl kept looking at him. She was standing by a group of girls, all flocked together like a group of seagulls. She was talking to them but then she would glance over at Shaggy every so often.

He quickly recognized her when she walked over to him. She had long brown hair and always wore a ton of make up. Rumor had it that her dad owned the Malt Shop in town.

_Amber Hoffman. She never talked to me before…._

"Hey Shaggy, how was your summer?" She took the seat right next to him.

"Uhh..pretty good. Like, how was yours?" He asked awkwardly.

"Oh mine was just fantastic!" She said in a tone that was almost _too _cheerful.

He was sure the conversation would have continued if the teacher hadn't walked in and started class.

_Like, that was really weird. I wonder why she's being super nice to me all of a sudden?_

* * *

The next two classes passed uneventful and he was glad when it was time for lunch.

He sat his tray off food down and settled down next to Fred and Velma. That's when he noticed it again. She kept looking at him from across the room and even smiled at him.

"Guys, like, what do you know about Amanda Hoffman?"

"Jinkies, well, her dad owns the Malt Shop, but other than that I really don't know anything. Why?"

"I don't know, I think she might have a thing for me."

"What?" Fred started laughing, "Amanda likes you? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard."

Shaggy shot him a dirty look, "What's so funny about it? It could happen."

Fred kept trying to stop from laughing. Velma got quiet and started to push her mashed potatoes around with her fork.

After Fred finally contained himself, he spoke, "Man, she's way out of your league! Don't you know that? "

"But she keeps looking at me! And even talking to me. Couldn't that mean something?"

The blond man just shook his head, "Hey, if you want to try asking her out…then go for it. But Shaggy, you gotta learn that girls don't always mean what they want you to believe."

"Well, like, I guess that's just a chance I'm going to have to take." As he stood up and started to walk over to her, his legs felt like they had turned to jello.

_What if Fred is right?_

**Don't worry. I promise there will be some Shelma soon! Please read and review. :D**


	3. It don't come easy

**A/N: Sorry for the delay! On with the story! **

He felt his stomach drop when he sat down beside her, his mouth suddenly went dry and all of the English language escaped his mind.

Luckily for him she spoke first, sounding almost not surprised that he was sitting next to her. "Oh hey, Shaggy"

"Like, Hey Amanda."

He couldn't help but notice that all the other girls had their eyes on him, watching him like a cat stalks a bird.

"What do _you _want?" One girl sneered.

"Umm...Amanda. Can I talk to you alone?" He felt his neck grow hot as she stared back at him, not saying anything. She then exchanged a glance with one of her friends.

"Why?"

"B-because…I have something to ask you."

This wasn't going at all how he had hoped.

"Well, why don't you ask me right here?"

Her total attitude had changed in spilt seconds. He wondered if he should stop while he was ahead. But he didn't…

"Well, like, I was wondering if you maybe you wanted to hang out sometimes or go see a movie?" He scratched the back of his head nervously.

"You mean like a date?"

"Um..Yeah." He felt nervousness begin to rise in his stomach.

There was a long pause again and then a smile spread across her lips. But this wasn't the same smile she had given him before, this one was sick and twisted.

"Oh sure, I'd love to have everyone in the whole school seeing me with you," she sneered. Her little group burst to a fit of giggles. "Here, let me give you my phone number."

He flinched at the mocking tone in her sour voice. Dropping his eyes to the ground, he turned and walked away, not waiting to hear anymore.

But the sound of their laughter still filled his ears. He heard Amanda say something else.

"Wow. I guess I do owe you 10 bucks now. I can't believe that freak actually had the balls to ask me out.."

Shaggy marched past his friends, not making eye contact with them. They had witnessed the whole thing, and so did the rest of the school. They all saw him make a huge fool out of himself.

"Shaggy, Wait!"

He didn't stop.

He got past all the students in the lunch area, out into the deserted hallway and started to sprint to his locker.

_How could I be so damn stupid? I guess all I am to everyone is a joke. A fucking joke. _

A hand placed on his shoulder and he spun around. Not sure who to expect- but he didn't care either.

It was Fred.

"Great. Just going to rub it in more," he mumbled to himself

Fred let out a sign.

"Look, I did tell you she was way out of league, but…"

"Yeah! You didn't think I knew that already? Well, like, guess what. I did! But I was taking a chance for once in my life. But I guess there is no point in doing that. It always end up the same way."

The blond stepped back, slightly suspired to hear real anger in Shaggy's voice for the first time.

He was silent for a moment, as if to choose his words carefully.

"Look, Shag. Don't let what happened get you down. That stuff happens to guys a lot more than you might think. Even me."

Shaggy looked up in confusion.

"You?""Yes. A few years back there was a girl who kept flirting with me. So I asked her out. Well we dated for maybe a week and then she broke up with me. For no reason. So eh, try not to let it bug you too much. Besides, Amanda was kind of a bitch."

Shaggy couldn't help but smile a little at his friend.

"Oh, and by the way, you wanna go camping with me and the girls this weekend? It will help you forget all the jerks at school.""Like, sure. That sounds great."

**A short chapter I know. I will try to make the next one longer and a bit more interesting. Please read and review! Thanks!**


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